On May 31, U.S. troops concluded first joint exercises practicing the reinforcement of Northern Finland in case of an attack from Russia. Both Norway and Finland have recently signed new defense pacts with the U.S. military giving access to bases in the far north of their territories. In this report for VOA, Henry Wilkins speaks to Finland’s minister of defense and U.S. officers about what this means for the region. …
Washington — In late May, the Faktor Druk printing plant in Kharkiv was hit during a missile attack. Serhii Polituchyi, CEO of Faktor Druk Corp., which owns the plant, rushed to the scene, arriving before firefighters, and watched as the building was engulfed in flames. Seven of his employees were killed and 21 wounded. According to Ukrainian authorities, the Russian military attacked Kharkiv and the neighboring city of Lubotyn with 15 missiles on May 23. One landed at Faktor Druk, the largest printing facility in Ukraine and one of the largest in Europe, destroying its binding shop — a 4,000-square-meter modern …
PARIS — A multinational operation by Interpol and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation cracked down on attempts in Moldova to sabotage one of the international police agency’s key tools, the Red Notice system, officials said Tuesday. Four people were detained in the eastern European country. The joint sting, which also involved cooperation with French and British authorities, uncovered an international criminal organization with ties to people in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus suspected of cybercrime, Moldova’s anticorruption chief said. The suspected individuals “paid intermediaries and public figures in Moldova to inform wanted criminals of [their] Red Notice status,” Veronica Dragalin, the …
Recent violence between soldiers and migrants at the Polish-Belarusian border has prompted the Polish government to increase security and reintroduce a 200-meter buffer zone this week. Poland sees the latest migrant influx from Belarus as a hybrid warfare tactic. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze visited the region and has this report. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak. …
Washington — There are new warnings about potential attacks aimed at disrupting the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris, including the potential for more terror plots like the one disrupted last week by French officials. A report released Tuesday by the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future states that despite a high likelihood of cyberattacks, the greatest risk to the Paris Games will come from in-person threats instead of from cyberspace. “We assess that physical security threats — including terrorism, violent extremism, civil unrest and disruptive protests — pose the greatest risk of harm and disruption,” the report from Recorded Future’s Insikt Group …
Vienna, Austria — Britain, France and Germany late on Monday submitted a resolution to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board, censuring Iran over its lack of cooperation with the agency despite U.S. opposition, two diplomats said. It was the latest of numerous diplomatic maneuvers by Western powers who fear Iran might be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon — a claim the Islamic Republic denies. “The text has been formally tabled,” one diplomatic source told AFP, with a second confirming the information. The move to submit a motion against Iran was driven by an “urgency to react to the gravity of the …
Paris — Humanity has made strides tackling global warming but remains on track for a “ruinously high” rise in the Earth’s temperature, the U.N.’s climate chief said as crucial negotiations began Monday. Diplomats meet every June in Bonn to try and advance the stickiest points in climate negotiations so that political leaders can finalize agreements at the year-end COP summit. At this year’s Bonn talks, which run until June 13, the main issue is money — how much wealthy nations should pay to help low-income nations cope with climate change. A new, longer-term goal for climate aid is supposed to be …
DEAUVILLE/PARIS — Crowds cheered and applauded as U.S. veterans arrived at French airports ahead of ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when more than 150,000 Allied soldiers landed in Normandy to drive out Nazi Germany forces. Many of those flying in over the weekend into Monday were older than 100, pushed on wheelchairs by relatives and aides. “It’s unreal. It’s unreal. Wow,” 107-year-old Reynolds Tomter said at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport as students waved U.S. and French flags and held up photos of the veterans. “It feels great … and I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity …
Atlanta, Georgia — Hilbert Margol says he didn’t look on himself as a hero when his U.S. Army artillery unit fought its way across Europe during World War II. But he will be feted in France as one of 60 American veterans of that conflict traveling to Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. “I know my brother and I never looked at it as we were any kind of heroes, nothing like that,” Margol said recently of himself and his twin brother Howard, who served with him. “It was just our time. That we were asked to …
Tbilisi, Georgia — Thousands of Georgians gathered Sunday in the capital Tbilisi for a charity concert aimed at raising funds for those arrested during weeks of protests against a controversial “foreign influence” law. On Tuesday, Georgia’s parliament adopted the divisive law, overcoming a presidential veto on the bill which critics say mirrors Russian legislation used by Moscow to silence dissent. Brussels and Washington have warned the move will derail the Black Sea nation from its path to European Union membership. It has sparked nearly two months of daily protests that saw police use tear gas and water cannon to disperse rallies, …
SINGAPORE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday urged countries to participate in the June 15-16 peace summit in Switzerland. Zelenskyy, in his keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, emphasized diplomacy’s role in maintaining Ukrainian efforts in the war with Russia, now in its third year. “Not so long ago, it seemed that the world would always be fragmented, but we saw that most nations truly desire and are capable of cooperation, at least as far as collective security is concerned,” he told hundreds of foreign government officials and delegates at the regional security dialogue. He stressed how support …